The iconic silhouette from the opening credits
by Allan Fish
(UK 1964 1,040m) DVD2
This business may last a long time
p Tony Essex, Gordon Watkins w John Terraine, Corelli Barnett, Anthony Jay, Ed Collins ph various ed Barry Toovey m Wilfred Josephs narrated by Michael Redgrave (with Ralph Richardson (Field Marshal Haig), Emlyn Williams (Lloyd George), Marius Goring, Sebastian Shaw, Cyril Luckham)
The Great War is the sort of television event that truly deserves the epithet milestone. It’s the first truly great documentary series produced not only by the BBC but arguably anywhere in the world. It really has, the best part of half a century later, stood the test of time. And time itself is very much to the forefront here; the achievement all the greater for contriving to remain in the British public consciousness for the forty years it was unseen on TV after its first broadcast. It was the template from which such later documentaries as The World at War and even Ken Burns’ The Civil War took their cue, but it was more than that. The most remarkable thing about it is that, for all the black and white interviews with the survivors of the calamity, it’s an incredibly modern achievement.
The series covers, over twenty-six episodes, with suitably sombre narration from Michael Redgrave, and in enthralling detail, the story of the greatest calamity the world had yet seen (and, to these eyes, would ever see). It discusses the events that lead up to the war, the uneasy peace of the Belle Epoque and the shaky alliances that would soon be tested to hitherto undreamt of levels; as we are told, “the peace of Europe in 1914 was a fragile thing.” All the events and battle places that have gone down in horrific infamy – the Marne, Ypres, Champagne, Verdun, the Somme, Passchendaele – are here, along with extended sequences involving such factors as the home front, the role of women in the war, the war in the middle east, the Russian withdrawal, the Italian/Austro-Hungarian front and, of course, the ultimate personification of the pointlessness of war, the Western Front. More than that, however, is the illustration of the little things that made this war the most poignant of all; the 24 hour armistice of Christmas 1914 where the notion of fighting for freedom becomes all the more blurred, the soldiers hardened by the experience of Passchendaele singing “we’re here because we’re here“, images of ant-like armies crawling out of the crater-infested mud baths, the sardonic singing of “hangin’ on the old barbed wire“, and the description of how soldiers on leave thought the outside world was the one that wasn’t real. It’s a war that has always captured the imagination, and the screen has done it justice, at least in spirit if not in reality, with the likes of The Big Parade, The Last Flight, Paths of Glory, Verdun, Les Croix de Bois, La Grande Illusion, and All Quiet on the Western Front. Most touching of all, perhaps, is how we are shown how both sides not only shared a “companionship of mud“, but grew to feel solidarity with the enemy far more than their own brass hats and politicians, for here was the ultimate expression of what Shakespeare once called a “fellowship of death.” Though it does offer possible underlying reasons for the war’s beginning and end, in the end it could be argued that Edmund Blackadder summed it up by saying “it was too much trouble not to have a war.”
The Western Front – Christmas 1914
Forty years on we live in an age where the last veterans of this cataclysmic event are passing away. We live in apathetic times, where the modern generation hardly care about what their grandfathers did in the Second war, let alone their great-grandfathers a generation earlier. We need to make series such as this available to today’s youth to remind them just what hardships were suffered, just what war really was about. Yet how many of them would watch something this old, and in black and white, too? Now the testimonies of the survivors, from all the armies, are more valuable than ever. It’s a war that haunts us still, for it not only marked the end of the old order and class society, but the beginning of our loss of innocence. Siegfried Sassoon once famously asked the reader “have you forgotten yet?” This series should be shown every November, as it is crucial in making sure we never shall forget.
another iconic still from the opening credits
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Yes, this magisterial program (which I proudly own) does invoke the “spirit” of all those great films Allan mentions. It is surely the greatest of all World War I series, and one of the most supern assembled historical programs of any kind.
I saw several installments of this, but the not the whole thing. It’s superb, but I prefer the Lawrence Olivier-narrated World War 2 series even more.
We’ll agree to disagree, Bobby, but I find WWII less poignant than WWI anyway.
Very interesting, Alan. I know little about WWI outside of what was learned in general European history classes in college. I would also guess that this is a conflict that is focused on more on your side of the pond versus here in the states, where WWII is held up as the “greatest” of all the wars (I could be wrong, but just a guess). I honestly don’t know if my DVD is region-free, but I don’t think it is… but this is one I’d love to see, so I might have to look into getting hold of a copy. Wonderful piece.
Yes, WWI isn’t discussed much in America as they weren’t really involved, hence WWII is all that mattered – it reminds me of what Shelby Foote said in The Civil War about how in America the Civil War is referred to as the greatest war of them all and that having to have the greatest of eveything is a very American thing to do, and that’s from an American.
It’s called Veterans Days in the US, but it’s called Armistice Day to this day in the UK and it’s to WWI I always think, and virtually everyone this side of the pond, on 11th November. There never has been or ever will be butchery on such a scale. The likes of Passchendaele and Ypres were unprecedented slaughterhouses in world history.
Allan, with all due respect what you state here is not really true. The war is studied an discussed (and written about) in schools and in volumes of historical literature and America’s late entry does not mitigate the fact that 4,272,500 Yankee troops were deployed, and there were well over 320,000 casualties, including 117,000 dead. That is not minimal involvement the way I see it. Yes, Europe suffered far more casualties, but it was really their war until later circumstances convinced the US to enter.
Dave, it’s very balanced…you can check it out here, before you buy it. It is one of the greatest things ever put together. In any media…
I’m wondering if, just if….you were to type in say “The Great War” and then maybe something like ….errmmmm….the word ‘torrent’ next to it. Maybe you’d be able watch it. just wondering, mind you!
A fitting and thoughtful piece. Australians honour their fallen much as they do in Europe. The Gallipoli debacle is the focus of Australia’s remembrance.
Today’s commemoration is the first here and in Britain with no veterans living. The last three in the UK and the last one here in Australia passing away since last year. The last interview of each of the last survining vets in Britain and in Australia echoed the same sentiment: war is not glorious and all efforts must be made to avoid it.
Regarding the feelings of young people, Allan certain trends belie your lament on the attitude of the young. The BBC reported yesterday that each year more and more young people from the UK are visiting the Western Front, and the same trend is evident for young Australians who are making pilgrimages to Gallipoli.
There are some, indeed, Tony, who are doing so, but remember a lot of this is organised by schools and not voluntarily because schools reealise the problem of a generation embracing apathy to the past. I work in a college that represents so many in that I have not seen a single student even wearing a poppy. If asked they don’t know what it means, they don’t care. They’ll go to places if organised by school/college, and in some cases they will become interested in what happened, as they do when visiting Auschwitz. But it’s becoming sad when, as yesterday, I have to set my alarm for a couple of minutes prior to 11am to go and find somewhere quiet to observe 2-3 mins silence as I like to do every year. It’s sad, when WWI was the biggest single turning point in history of the last 150 years. The world was never the same again.
As for Gallipoli, indeed, it still casts a shadow and rightly so. Of course I should have quantified Europe and her then Empire (thankfully no more), of which Australia, Canada and New Zealand bore a serious brunt.
Right you are Allan, you are there and I am not. Thanks.
It should be compulsory, Tony. Really makes me angry the ignorance about the events of less than a century ago.
Whoa! This does need some exposure. Thanks a ton for the magnificent review Allan. This one goes into my watch-list
Incisive and touching work, Allan.
Your piece on We Need to Talk about Kevin poses a personal, pocket-size war and the tantalizing options of resolving it. The Great War raises a public juggernaut far more implacable and chilling in its relentless physics. The traces of seeking equilibrium there are indeed heartbreaking.
It is, as you say, an up-to-the-minute problem in which most of the current generation of web-surfers appear to be ill-equipped to address.
Thanks, Jim, it’s a series everyone needs to see.
Allan, the nearest thing to a contemporary counterpart here in the U.S. was a CBS series of half-hour episodes simply called “World War 1,” distinguished by Robert Ryan’s narration and a score by Morton Gould — music mattered for these early TV war documentaries because they all wanted to emulate the success of Richard Rodgers’s score for “Victory At Sea.” I watched it all as a kid when PBS re-ran it in the 70s. It was probably bare bones stuff compared to the BBC series, but it was still a potent introduction to the conflict. My strongest memory of it is the episode about the Italian-Austrian front when Ryan bleakly enumerated all the battles of Caporetto. I could always watch it again, but I’d like to see the BBC version of the war as well.
I have never seen the CBS one, Samuel, but nor do I want to. I’m sure it’s like comparing Dan Brown to Victor Hugo.
Allan, if you mean that after seeing the BBC show, anything else would be like following Hugo with Brown, all I can say is that I’d have to see the British series before conceding the point. I simply find it remarkable that back then an American commercial network would commit even a half-hour per week to a historical documentary.
It may have been remarkable by Americna network TV standards for them to have done such a show, but it’s still like a dolphin against a blue whale in quality. That much I guarantee.
Thanks for this series, Allan. Right now I’m not watching many television programs (with so many movies to catch up, I know getting involved with a series, mini or otherwise, would hijack my viewing schedule) but I’m going to keep this list bookmarked as a reference for when I do delve deeper.
Interesting find, here it is to watch:
I agree that this is an important and well-done series that should be viewed by anyone that thinks war is “fun.” I would also recommend a 2-hour program on the archeology of a WWI trench in Holland that aired on the Military Channel.
This series has been great Allan! I’ve made quite the list of shows to watch now. I’m a huge fan of British television, so this list has opened my eyes to so many more programs I wasn’t aware of. Thank you!!